Election Integrity Highlights in Sacramento County

Voting System:

Sacramento County entered into a contract with the voting system vendor Dominion Voting Systems in 2018. This system has passed the National Certification Test Plan and the California Secretary of State certification that includes:

  • Examination and testing of system software • Software source code review and evaluation • Hardware and software security penetration testing
  • Hardware testing under conditions simulating intended use, storage, operation, transportation, and maintenance environments
  • Evaluation of system documentation
  • Operational testing to validate system performance and functioning under normal and abnormal conditions

Certification records can be viewed at www.eac.gov and www.sos.ca.gov. California counties are required to use systems certified by the California Secretary of State. All updates to systems must be re-certified by the State and the encrypted software for any updates must be picked up in-person by counties from the Secretary of State’s office. 

Paper ballots are required in all California counties. 

Sacramento County ensures the voting system is secured by the following means:

  • Ballot tabulation takes place at our main office only, 7000 65th Street, Ste A. Ballots voted in-person at a Vote Center are brought back to the office each night to be tabulated. All in-person ballots are tabulated by the time staff leaves Election Night. All early ballots (both in-person and Vote by Mail ballots) are counted first
  • Multi-factor authentication is required to access the equipment, including the ballot tabulators • Our County has administrative access and passwords to all voting equipment and ballot tabulators
  • Secured and supervised access of all voting equipment, under 24-hour video surveillance. Only limited permanent, full-time staff have C-CURE access (logs date/time anyone enters the room) to the server room and ballot counting room, and no one is allowed in those rooms by themselves
  • Hand count audits of all contests in 1% of the voting precincts, randomly selected with the public the day following Election Day. If a contest is not selected during the random draw, additional precincts will be audited to ensure every contest, and every tabulator, has an audit conducted to match against the computer results
  • Reconciling the number of voted ballots in each precinct to the number of voter signatures for that precinct (signatures on mail ballot envelopes, Conditional Voter Registration/provisional envelopes, or roster pages for in-person voting). This ensures ballots are not scanned twice and no additional ballots are added to any precinct that are not supposed to be there
  • Secure server system, with port blockers, to ensure the voting system is not connected to the internet at any time (Election Code 19205)
  • Logic & Accuracy testing of voting tabulators with current election information to ensure votes are being captured accurately
  • Chain of custody logs and procedures in place for all ballots at all times • Only red pens are allowed with the ballots, as the tabulators do not read red ink 
  • Voter intent questions are reviewed by teams of two, and reviewed by a Supervisor team. This process is called “adjudication”. This also is reviewed by a separate team conducting the manual hand count audit. Any decision made on a voter intent issue is recorded on the ballot image and can be reviewed during the certification period
  • Accounting for all printed ballots, spoiled ballots, surrendered ballots, ballots returned as undeliverable, and blank ballot paper

Vote by Mail Ballots: 

  • All Vote by Mail ballot envelopes are sprayed with a barcode, tying the identification envelope back to the voter’s record, but not to the ballot itself. This ensures only one ballot is counted for each active (eligible) voter, each election, even if a voter receives multiple ballots
  • Signature comparison on the ballot return envelope is completed for every ballot, comparing it to the voter’s registration record. The envelope is only opened if the signature matches. Staff undergoes training to look for common characteristics between signatures, pen pressure, connectors, size, angle, etc. If the signature does not match, the voter will be contacted
  • All undeliverable ballots are returned to our office and we update the voter’s file accordingly. If the voter does not confirm their address by 8pm on Election night, they will be placed in the inactive file where they will not receive further election materials until they contact our office
  • Counted ballots are stored in a secured cage, under 24-hour surveillance, with labels that contain the tabulators’ name, date, tabulator number, number of ballots scanned, along with a print out from the system of what is contained in that batch